I’d say the Great Eastern Drive is a must-do road trip when in Tasmania as it takes in some of the most beautiful national parks and several pristine beaches, as well as a multitude of potential stops to see local wildlife and sample the wine, oysters and other kinds of seafood for which the province is famous. As hiking in beautiful nature, eating seafood and drinking wine are some of my favourite things to do, it was pretty much a dream come true for me.
I hired a camper car nicknamed ‘Scooby’ for the journey from a company called Spaceships who I found to be very helpful and much cheaper than other operators. Hiring a camper car rather than a camper van gave me a lot more freedom as it meant I could park anywhere, as opposed to vans which have to overnight at designated campsites. While it was cheaper avoiding campsite fees, the downside was that I had to wash in the sea each morning (actually a pleasure and not as cold as you’d think), followed by a cold beach shower to wash off the salt (without detergent in both cases) whereas campsites have hot showers and other facilities you might want.
From the pick up point near Hobart airport, I drove to Sorell, the last town heading south that has big supermarkets and cheap fuel to pick up supplies to stock the small fridge in my boot. I’d paid a little more to hire a foldable chair and table for having breakfast at each morning. Otherwise I feasted on oysters, scallop pies and different kinds of seafood (see future posts), at various stops along the way.
The plan was to head to Eaglehawk Neck in the southeast first and work my way up the coast to Eddystone Point in the northeast before heading inland to Launceston (the second city) and then back to Hobart (the capital). There is lots more to see and do but I only had ten days and you’d need a lot more time to do everything. I also like to leave something for a second trip.
The next stop I made was at Blue Lagoon Oysters www.bluelagoonoysters.com.au in Boomer Bay, which is a very famous area for oysters (see my Sydney fish market post).
Blue Lagoon is one of only two places in Tasmania (see next post for the second) where you can eat Pacific Golds, a particularly sweet and creamy oyster (and currently my favourite oyster ever). The more common Pacific Silvers are also delicious but saltier and more metallic (more about that in my coming dedicated oyster post).
After this I continued south to Eaglehawk Neck to see the famous Tesselated Pavement.
Although it looks manmade, the pavement was actually created millions of years ago by a process known as ‘jointing’ where an area of flat rock becomes fractured as it moves.
A more familiar example to us in Britain is the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland where the tesselations (named after ‘tesserae’ or mosaic tiles) are polygonal as opposed to rectangular, or sometimes triangular, here.
After this I headed further south to Doo Town to see its landmark Blow Hole. Blowholes are created when sea caves grow upward into vertical shafts that eventually reach the surface, causing the hydraulically compressed seawater to be released like a geyser out of the top of the blowhole.
Truth be known, this one isn’t particularly exciting as it’s really an old blowhole where the cave roof has nearly completely collapsed, so all there is to see is the occasional splash of spray when a big wave comes in. Click to play the video.
The rugged cove next to it is very picturesque though.
Fortunately there is a secondary reason to visit which is to eat at Doo-lishus (gerrit?), a renowned fish and chip van located right next to the blowhole.
I went for the Fisherman’s Cone with Garlic Aioli on the side which was indeed very good, and made even better with the addition of a cheeky can of Tassie pilsner from the Scooby’s fridge.
Heading north I stopped at Dunalley Beach to view the unusual stones that are particularly atmospheric as the sun is going down.
Click on this video.
You’ll find all of the places mentioned on my Google map.
From Dunalley I drove a couple of hours north to Coles Bay, the gateway to the Freycinet National Park, where I’d be up bright and early for Day Two of the drive…